


Like he was born for it

by Pilarcraft



Series: A Smarter Man (The Dragon Prince) [3]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, really just a conversation I wish had happened in S3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21561727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pilarcraft/pseuds/Pilarcraft
Summary: The King of Katolis was quite possibly the only man who knew even a hint of the man’s crimes and would still extend him the courtesy of using the title he had worked a lifetime to earn.
Relationships: Aaravos & Viren (The Dragon Prince), Callum & Ezran (The Dragon Prince), Ezran & King Harrow (The Dragon Prince), Ezran & Viren, Harrow & Viren (The Dragon Prince)
Series: A Smarter Man (The Dragon Prince) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1282421
Kudos: 53





	Like he was born for it

“I am here, Lord High Mage,” The King of Katolis was quite possibly the only man who knew even a hint of the man’s crimes and would still extend him the courtesy of using the title he had worked a lifetime to earn. It was not a rarity for the mage to have visitors of high positions, but to be visited by a royal? Even one this young and naïve? That was indeed rare. “I am here”, the young king asked, “to ask you _why_ ”

“Tell me, your majesty” the bound mage asked after a few minutes of silence, looking at his young liege lord in the eyes. “Do you recognize the name ‘Elarion’?”

The man, justice damn him, looked so at ease in his meagre dungeon cell that one would think he was lounging in his own study, giving an audition for an aspiring apprentice. They both knew he had only remained in the cell only because it had fancied him to do so –even putting him in that prison had cost the court many of their guards. It was this knowledge, the fear and understanding that the mage would only be in their custody as long as it fancied him, that had pushed the Child-King (with what was perhaps the kindest soul in the entire continent) to come and make this conversation.

“No?” He asked, in the same tone he used with his king Father a lifetime ago when he was about to –as Callum usually put it- go into lecture mode; he was not looking for an answer, only a reason to go on a tirade. “Not surprising. I was always of the opinion that your father was not strict enough where your royal education was concerned. Allow me to illuminate. Elarion was a city. Centuries ago, it stood not far from where I assume your brother is escorting a young dragon and a certain Moonshadow Assassin as we speak. Today, it is a scorched land. More barren than even the center of the breach, with just as much life in it. I do not think there are many among us who have visited this holy site of the Human Civilization before; least of all a _cowardly_ mage like me.”

The mage raised an eyebrow. There was _something_ unhealthy about him –moreso than usual. He looked too pale, with his look of calm _too_ manufactured. The King of Katolis did not know it yet, but this unhealthy look was not exactly the result of the mage’s visit to the dungeons. It indeed had a more arcane reason, one that _its cause_ was confident the young king would not notice, much less opine about.

“Centuries ago, Elarion was prosperous. It was the center of our civilization. I do not mean that of _Katolis_ but all humanity –though we of Katolis find our origin from that city just as much as every other major human city does. It is said that it held _hundreds of thousands_ of people. Does that number impress you, my liege?” the mage asked with an ugly smirk, “it is roughly ten times the number of your subjects. Do you know what _happened_ to it?”

Ezran had an ugly feeling he knew where this was going. He did not answer, for he did not need to. “It fell apart, of course. Your father, King Harrow, can trace his lineage back to one of the many Ancients in that city. Your mother, to another. When it fell apart, those nobles were forced to lead their people out of Xadia into where we live now. It fell apart –it was reduced to ashes and dust … because of a mage.”

The king blinked.

“Oh yes. Quite possibly the first –and most important- of the mages our history has named. Ziard was… a prodigy, he received a certain artifact that now rests in what was my office, from one of what he considered ‘The Great Ones’, and established the earliest and most important rule for magic: An eye for an eye.”

“ _That’s not true!_ ” Ezran knew that much. He had seen it in action, “I’ve seen magic. I’ve seen my brother do magic, I’ve seen Lujanne do magic, -I’ve seen Claudia do magic. Magic doesn’t need sacrifice.”

“No? Do you know what it _does_ require?” the mage looked awfully pleased with himself, “Magic that doesn’t require sacrifice –an equation of equal input and output- requires one to be born with an inner connection to an Arcanum. Well, innate –like this… Lujanne uses- or an outward connection –like my daughter and your… _brother_ do. But do you know what we humans lack? What Ziard, as it is more important to this conversation, lacked?”

“An Arcanum?”

“Precisely. He held owned no Primal Stone, he was not lucky enough to be born an Elf, he _was unlucky enough_ to realize what we needed, and he was… brave enough to take it. Of course, many did not like that. There were many, both in the humans and out. Most importantly, the _Dragon King_ did not like that.”

“ _Thunder_? What does _Thunder_ have to do with anything-“

“Oh, he came later. At that point, the King of Dragons was… a very different fellow. He was just as large, and he was _just_ as terrifying. His flame stronger than any dragon our people have recorded, and his size gigantic, Even for a dragon. Sol Regem, did not enjoy seeing humans with magic. He did not have a high opinion of us –before magic we starved and struggled, helpless and _pathetic_. That, Sol Regem believed, was our natural position, and with magic, we no longer wished to return to such a time when we were _lesser beings_. Sol Regem gave Ziard his word that he would be safe from harm, and upon a peak higher even than the Dragon King’s lair, he ordered Ziard to give up his magic. I ask of you, my king. What should he have done?”

It would have been easy to say ‘abandon dark magic’. Ezran had _seen_ , with his own eyes, what Dark Magic had done to Callum the only time he tried it –and that had been for the best of causes, if that was what Dark Mages felt all the time, wouldn’t it be better to leave it behind?

But Ezran knew better than anyone what the accident of birth meant. It was only the most important thing his father had taught him about. People weren’t born equal, they were different in many aspects, most of them defined by the accident of their birth. It was the duty of those born lucky to help those that weren’t. To push them down –to consider them _lesser beings_?

“I can see the cogs working from the look in your eyes, my lord” The mage chuckled, pushing Ezran out of his thinking process, “I suspect that you are of the same opinion as the High Mage. Ziard… did not agree. Do you know what Sol Regem did? He burnt Elarion to the ground.”

 _Well,_ he thought, as he waited for the boy to begin to comprehend what he had revealed, _that is not exactly what happened_. Or maybe he didn’t. The blue apparition of the playful Elf floating around in his cell seemed to have given him a more accurate version of the events. He certainly looked trustworthy enough for the High Mage to take his word, at least on an issue this trivial. The Destruction of Elarion may have been the first major act of the long war, but it was neither the most important, nor the most atrocious.

“Thousands of people dead, and many more made refugees because a being enjoying the _accident of birth_ did not like another being trying to make the playing field _begin_ to look equal. But that is not even important. You asked me _why_. Let me give you a better example. Less about the arcane… and more about what we face _now_. Tell me, your majesty. Do you know how Duren lost its Queens?”

This one, Ezran knew. How could he not?

“Then I hope you will grow to one day even _begin_ to learn how utterly _cruel_ the accusation you pose as a question truly is.”

Two days later, Ezran, King of Katolis abdicated from the throne. Three days later, The High Mage crowned himself King in what was perhaps the least impressive ceremony Katolis had ever seen. Seven days later, Katolis went to war.


End file.
